1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus, a method, and a computer program for selecting a recommended item or items suited to a user on the basis of information about the use of items by the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as digital technologies and network technologies have been advanced, there have been more cases where items such as digital contents and goods are distributed or sold by use of a network. Accordingly, there are increased needs for technologies of selecting an information piece or pieces about an item or items desired by a user from information pieces about many items, and providing the selected information piece or pieces to the user. A technology has been proposed which provides an information piece or pieces about an item or items accorded with user's taste and interest in response to information about the use of items by the user and information about the evaluation of the items by the user.
As disclosed in Japanese patent application publication numbers 2001-236405 and 2001-202571, a technology has been proposed which recommends items not only accorded with user's taste and interest but also a policy of a seller who sells the items.
Japanese application 2001-236405 discloses that a seller prepares recommendation rules for goods recommendation, and a recommendation rule fitted to a user is selected therefrom on the basis of information about goods purchased by the user and web pages accessed by the user in the past before items are recommended according to the selected recommendation rule. Thereby, items accorded with not only user's taste but also a sales policy of the seller can be recommended to the user.
Japanese application 2001-202571 discloses that information pieces about goods purchased by a customer in the past are accumulated, and campaign goods suited to the customer are selected from all campaign goods according to a goods strategy of a seller. Thereby, campaign goods corresponding to user's purchase history can be recommended to a user.
However, in the methods disclosed by Japanese applications 2001-236405 and 2001-202571, all goods recommended to users are limited to items accorded with a sales policy of a seller. Thus, recommendation information given to a user tends to be toward particular goods and particular fields, and is not always attractive to the user who receives the recommendation information.
In addition, since all the recommended goods are accorded with the sales policy of the seller, the user sometimes senses a common factor among the recommended goods and feels a high-pressure selling or aggressive peddling attitude of the seller. Thus, there is a conceivable case where users do not obediently accept recommended goods and have distrusts of a seller so that providing recommendation information does not result in an increase in sales of goods.